So I'm an American living with my German husband in Germany for the past 3 1/2 years now. Came on here thinking I might get a little further on some research on a particular family member who I know so far enlisted in Washington D.C. in '42. I have multiple other family members who fought all over during WWII, it's just this one great-grandfather I know little about since he and my great-grandmother divorced pretty early on and she went and married a rear admiral from the Navy who raised my grandfather. No one in the family can tell me much about him as they didn't get in contact with him again until shortly before his death in '73. I was hoping this dog tag could tell me what unit he was in.
Hi Frau Okie. We'll do our best to help. If you give us his name and whatever you know it would be of assistance. You can start here http://www.archives.gov/veterans/
Welcome to the Forum. Some things can be gleaned from a dog-tag but afraid his unit isn't one of them. Before July 1943 a dog tag had name,serial number, date of 1st Tetanus shot, blood type, name-address and state of his next of kin, and religion. After July of 43 the next of kin information was eliminated because of security reasons. A serial number has a few items that can be helpful. If it has a prefex of "O", they were an officer. No prefex was an enlisted person. A ser.# beginning in "1" was assigned to someone who enlisted--Regular Army, a beginning number "2" was assigned to the National Guard--a "3" meant the person was drafted. The next number was assigned to the region of the country where they entered the service. The numbers went from 1 through 9. For instance if the serial number beginning 19xxxxxxx, it would be an enlistee who entered the service from the 9th Corp Area--Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana. Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, California and Alaska. But that's about it. The Tetanus shots were given when first entering the service so an entry date can be gleaned from that. Suggest you read through this link--it could help you find what your looking for. Requesting Copies of Military Personnel Records Where do you live in Germany? Dave
Yeah I found a super helpful website at the last minute last night before going to bed that basically helped me figure out he was in the regular army in the III Corps. I guess I'll have to order records maybe from St. Louis's archives using his full name. But at least I know already a lot more than two days ago, haha. And we live in Aldekerk, a little cow town about 15 minutes from the Dutch border. Not too far from Overloon.
If you have his name you can enter it here for the Army Enlistment Record assuming he was enlisted. If you have his ASN even better. http://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-search.jsp?dt=893&tf=F&cat=WR26&bc=,sl
